The student recreation center has seen its highest participation numbers in school history since the start of winter quarter.
Last Monday, the SRC saw 5,185 students use the facility, followed by more than 6,000 students on both Tuesday and Wednesday.
Bryan Haunert, the associate director of physical education and recreation, said that the week one numbers were approximately 13 percent higher than last winter term, and broke single-day records for winter term on every day but Friday.
“We had 5,382 people in the building (on Thursday). Last year on the same day, there were 4,850 people.” Haunert said. “Basically it was the second-busiest Thursday we’ve ever had.”
The increased number of students using the SRC has created some issues. University junior Kyle Holsworth said that the increase has made the SRC overly congested.
“Obviously at this time of year, the rec center is very crowded with people trying to fulfill their new years resolutions, and it’s the beginning of the term so they don’t have much school work yet,” Holsworth said. “It’s just really frustrating.”
Holsworth believes that the SRC has the ability to cope with the overcrowding issue but has mismanaged the usage of the facilities.
“During the day, they have weight training classes of 30 people that use the entire front weight room…there needs to be some changes in how they schedule these classes.”
According to the Student Recreation Center Expansion and Renovation project description, the SRC is currently capable of effectively accommodating an enrollment of approximately 16,000 students, not the more than 24,000 currently enrolled at the university.
Randi Brown, another university junior, has noticed the increase in people at the SRC but believes the high attendance is merely a phase.
“The rec is always crowded the first few weeks because people are getting back from the holidays and have made new years resolutions to work out more,” she said. “By week five, I’m sure it’ll be back to normal.”